Never a GOLDFISH when it comes to Ted Lasso.

Like so many, I’ve fallen for Ted Lasso. 

This brilliant series lures you in slowly and then in a jolt you find yourself in love. It is exceptional writing, lines and scenes that will live with you forever [the same way as ‘how’s the serenity? to any Australian’]. 

Why does this beautiful piece of work create such connection and builds something memorable that leaves you hanging for more?

Everything Ted Lasso is about is so opposite to our world right now. 

Joyful, optimistic, creative and so fantastically wholesome. 

You don’t want to believe in it and yet it makes our heart sing a little and then it gets louder and louder. Maybe it’s what we need. Perhaps in a sea of shitty reality, poorly churned out content we aspire for something that will melt our hearts and slowly make us think about what we really want for ourselves and for our lives around us. 

Why is it so good? What can we learn from the Ted Lasso series that we can apply to our own lives, businesses and brands?

Ted pulls a clincher line and I’m going to borrow it… “Don’t let the wisdom of age be wasted on you.”  I’ve headed down a rabbit hole and here’s what I reckon.

Everything in this show is entirely intentional. It is considered, thought through, carefully made, refined. It’s 100% quality. 

The writers have spent considerable time abroad and have cultivated global sensibility which they have transported back and into a character that is quintessentially mid-western American. This goodness radiates from Ted, and you can’t not like him. 

There is so much going on, complexity, curly stories, emotions, language, cultural norms. It’s all there and it is obvious that it has carefully been pulled apart, poked, prodded, discussed and then carefully thought through and crafted into excellence and simplicity. 

Simplification these days mostly translates to ordinariness or worse, stripping out anything of value to make a quick buck. When you have seen what quality like this series or any brilliant product looks like, you can’t go back. Everything else is wasteful and unsustainable. I read just today that “Durability is at the core of the creative process at [insert luxury brand], whose objects are designed to increase in beauty and acquire a patina over time, and also to be handed down” but I digress. Ted Lasso is not so different, timeless and I can see this being watched over and over again. 

Quality matters and this requires us to be prepared to sit in complexity, enjoy it, refine, revisit and sweat the small things. Not something many people or organisations are prepared to do these days yet what Ted Lasso series shows us in spades.  Nothing has been left to chance. The creativity invested in delivering the story and characters are magical, yet it doesn’t stop there. The experience around the show is considered as much as the show itself. And it’s not the bullshit ‘experience’ we hear about in all the marketing magazines. They are not designing for every whim or for something that is ‘frictionless’ [aka numbing]. Apple with the makers of Ted Lasso made and created what THEY wanted to create. Brilliant. They have the courage to work and rebel and revel against the norms. 

 “Every disadvantage has its advantage” 

I heard that Apple insisted that the show was released once per week, annoying its fans and those obsessed with the ‘binge’.  Giving the show space and time between episodes allowed the viewers to consider the complexity of the story, talk about it and force attention.  In simple terms, deep engagement and finally discussing something of value that can influence and change us for the better. 

There are possibly also some solid commercial reasons for this tactic however the point is creativity didn’t end when the final edit was done.  Making and executing well is what you want makes you ‘feel like you fell out of a lucky tree’.  This point made was made by one of the writers I listened to in a podcast with Brene Brown. He explained that he didn’t want to make something he didn’t care about. He went on to say that if we are not connected to the work, we are doing this is ‘selling out’. Making money is ok, scaling is fantastic too however if you can’t connect with your work, why do it? 

Get out. Know your own purpose, know what gives you flow and get on with it. Don’t get so hung up with your business purpose either, simply make and do the work you connect with, and you are decent at. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it?  I feel like yelling ‘BELIEVE’. 

On this point, what is really clear from Ted Lasso the series and the character is that there is a very clear understanding of who he is. 

Ted and the series are constantly evolving, ‘being curious and not judgemental’. You could plant Ted anywhere and Ted is Ted. He knows who he is, and this is his superpower. The environment may offer new learnings however Ted Lasso remains Ted while the people around him change their thinking and behaviour. He is the change everyone can learn from. Who would have thought this loveable character from Kansas City could convert the negative nelly Brits? 

Ted Lasso the person, the brand essence is global, and this is priceless. 

Why has this series impacted and made so many people turn their head?  Ted Lasso series doesn’t flinch from its values or what it wants to do – its goodness shines through and this can touch the coldest heart and warm it. 

‘I love you when you give a shit’

There are too many lessons and loves of this series. The show is pure heart and asks us ‘If we believe in miracles. It also asks us to stop and revel in time and space. 

262 days in lockdown has given us time to think about how we want to show up and how we want to do business. 

Making and executing quality, knowing and really connecting to our work and being consistent in who we are and what we bring is the best recipe. 

‘Fuck the haters’ - let’s go with Ted.